In Defense of Constructive Criticism

[keket_amunet]

All criticism is opinion, whether the person writing it intends to be constructive or not. The job of an author is to write. That's it. They do not have to read reviews anymore than a reader is required to leave them

Comments

[mickawber_fics]

:sigh:

That's one of the most frustrating things about fandom to me; if you don't want to know where you're writing was unclear or your narrative lax, if you don't want your writing to improve, why accept reviews at all?

That and reviews that just say "weird" or "huh." I'll take "tl;dr" over those.

[keket_amunet]

SS/HG appears to have a particular bias against concrit that I haven't seen in other fandoms. I admit my experience in other fandoms and ships is limited, but I understand that helpful crit is valued in DM/HG (or is it DM/HP). I know from other sources and the little reading I've done that the Star Trek fandom actively encouraged craft discussions. I have seen little for or against in the Lost fandom, but I also haven't seen anyone complain about reviews in general there

[mickawber_fics]

You are certainly right about the "squee high"--and I don't know that any writer who is there purely for the feedback loop of OMG-they're-so-hot-together! is ever going to care about the quality of their own writing or open to suggestions for improving it

[harmony_bites]

Keket once got mobbed basically for posting about craft--she was told (seriously) that she was a danger to creativity and would crush the heart of newbies by offering craft advice. And one of the major SSHG BNFs, one of the ones that's actually talented and stands more or less for quality in the ship recently posted on how concrit is useless. I've gotten negative reactions too, for being dogmatic, doctrinaire, etc, for posting about facets of writing craft found in almost any book on writing by editors and agents.

So I guess my question is--is is HP? Or just SSHG? Do you find the same attitude in Harry/Ginny? Or did I just land in a ship with a different "culture"

[lipasnape]

I sympathize. I don't know other fandoms, so I assumed it was a feature of fanfiction in general. I would love to learn, directly or from reading thoughtful and knowledgeable reviews to stories I like (or don't like). I also stopped visiting the SSHG chat because I was bored with weather (and worse) chatter